Putin: Russia is starting to exit the oil and gas needle

More than two-thirds of Russia’s budget is still not generated by oil and gas revenues, Putin said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will get out of the “oil needle”. He said so during the annual press conference on Thursday, December 17.

“But you know what I would like to draw your attention to, which is clearly a positive element of economic development. 70% of the Russian budget is already formed not at the expense of oil and gas revenues,” Putin said.

According to him, this means that Russia, although not entirely, is beginning to “get out of the so-called” oil and gas needle “.

“And if someone still wants to represent us as a gas station, then this has no real basis,” says Putin, noting that the dependence of the Russian economy on energy exports remains high.

In this regard, the president of the Russian Federation cited statistics on the volume of the sovereign National Welfare Fund, in which surplus oil and gas profits accumulate, when the price of oil is higher than $ 42.4 per barrel. At the moment, its size is close to 13 trillion rubles. “In terms of rubles, it was 7.7 trillion, now it is almost 13 trillion. The growth is very significant,” Putin said.

As a reminder, in the first half of 2020, Russia’s oil and gas revenues accounted for less than a third of revenues (29.3%). They fell by almost one and a half trillion rubles.

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